Diageo invests in Scotch whisky tourism

United Kingdom | You would not have thought that Scotland needs more punters on its whisky trail. Over 2 million tourists stopped by her 68 Scotch whisky visitor centres in 2018. But Kentucky is catching up fast and so is Ireland.

In 2018, over 1.6 million people went on the Kentucky Bourbon trail. Even Ireland recorded one million visitors to its distilleries.

Therefore, Diageo is putting its money where it wants Scotch lovers to go. Media report that the world’s number one drinks group is investing USD 195 million over three years to reinvigorate its whisky tourism attractions, including a huge Johnnie Walker visitor centre in Edinburgh.

Additionally, the brand will update its 12 existing distillery visitor centres to help compete with other whiskey tourism attractions across the globe.

Four other distilleries will be directly linked to the Johnnie Walker experience. They represent the four regions that contribute to the whisky. Glenkinchie will represent Lowland; Cardhu will represent Speyside; Caol Ila will represent Islay; and the Highlands will be represented by Clynelish.

If visitors chose to go on a tour, they can see Diageo’s investments at various distilleries across Scotland, including Lagavulin, Talisker, Glen Ord, Oban, Dalwhinnie, Blair Athol, Cragganmore, and Royal Lochnagar. Diageo owns a total of 29 distilleries in Scotland.

The company has also previously committed USD 35 million to reopen the “lost distilleries” (read closed) of Port Ellen and Brora.

The visitor centres will act as brand experiences. But if done well they can also bring in a nice income. Diageo said that corporate sales, principally arising from the Guinness visitor centre in Dublin, and from the global licencing of Diageo’s brands and trademarks, came to GBP 52 million (USD 67 million) in the year ended 30 June 2018.